Legacy of French Colonialism: Soccer Success
Where would France be without its colonial past? On the soccer field, perhaps nowhere. The bulk of its current and recently retired players were born outside of France or have parents who immigrated to France from former colonial countries.
France’s colonial past gives it access to a huge pool of players. Those who come to France from former colonies are assured French citizenship and ushered into the national team. Until recently, France’s “poaching” of promising young players from Africa into French youth national teams made them ineligible to player for their countries of origin if they never made it to the full Les Bleus team. Indeed, France was the example most cited in FIFA’s decision to allow players who had only played for the youth teams of one country to turn out for a second country’s full national team. Immediately, teams such as Senegal, Mali, and Ivory Coast saw their ranks swelled by former French youth national team players returning to play for their homelands.
Despite some players returning home, most of the best players from former French colonies opt to play for France if given the opportunity. A list of players who were born in or have parents from former colonies or current overseas “departments” reads like a who’s who of French footballing stars:
Algeria
- Zinedine Zidane
Martinique
- Eric Abidal
- Thierry Henry
- Sylvain Wiltord
- Louis Saha
- Nicolas Anelka
French Guyana
- Mikael Silvestre
- Florent Malouda
Guadalupe
- Lillian Thuram
- William Gallas
Democratic Republic of Congo
- Claude Makelele
Senegal
- Patrick Vieira
- Patrice Evra
But the most interesting background is that of up-and-coming star Rio Mavuba. As a BBC article in 2004 revealed, the Bordeaux star was literally “born at sea” (it even says so on his passport) as his mother fleed civil war in her native Angola. Mavuba’s case differs from those listed above, as he does not hail from a former colony (his family was given refugee status in France), but like them, he will turn out for the French national team.
January 11th, 2007 09:43
Nice summary. I’ll be linking to you from the France page at WorldCupBlog in the next couple of days.
January 11th, 2007 20:03
[...] I found an interesting summary on the blog “Culture of Soccer” last night. It shows the national origins of many of the France team players. I had been thinking about writing up something similar, but it’s always nice when somebody else does your research for you. [...]
January 11th, 2007 20:07
Okay, here’s the link. Thanks for doing the research for me.
France’s Colonial Legacy
January 31st, 2007 18:19
[...] France’s soccer players has become an issue in French politics. Many have taken note of the diversity of Les Bleus, and used it to promote their agendas. These agendas are varied, ranging from xenophobic and racist [...]